Mark Pisano brought his Independence home to Pt. Loma Sportfishing November 10 after an eight-day trip with 29 anglers aboard.

Their story was much the same as others recently. The fishing was good, and the catch was mixed species, typical for fall eight and ten-day trips.

Jim Kostelecky of Pasadena won first place for his 79.8-pound yellowfin tuna. He said it bit on his chrome Salas 6X Jr. jig tied to 40-pound Big Game line and 80-pound Izorline spectra. He fished with an Avet JX reel and a Seeker 875 rod.

Tom Kroes of Tipton won second place for a 54.8-pound tuna, and posed the Jim.

Terry Watkins of San Diego won third place for a 48-pound dorado, but failed to appear for the jackpot shot.

Excel arrived November 10 after the annual Merritt trip with chartermasters Brad & Jeanie Merritt on board along with 29 other anglers. There were five tuna over 200 pounds on the boat, said skipper Justin Fleck.

“Yellowfin fishing was good,” he said, “on tuna from footballs to cows. We tried Alijos and we got a few wahoo there, but the bronze whaler sharks were there and they ate almost every tuna and a couple of the wahoo. The whalers were ten to 15 feet long, and thick.”

LA motorcycle officer and Excel regular Roy Moy only needed 20 minutes to subdue his first-place 205.8-pound tuna. He told Roecker it took a sardine on a 5/0 Hayabusa hook and 100-pound Seaguar Premier fluorocarbon. He fished with 130-pound Line One spectra on an Avet 30 W reel and a Calstar 765 H rod.

Dennis Lyons of Martinez won second place for a 203-pound, best-ever fish he bagged with a 6/0 Mustad Demon hook on 100-pound Izorline. He used 130-pound spectra, a Penn 30 reel and a Seeker 6465 XXH rod.

Bob Neal of Huntington Beach won third place for a 127-pound tuna.

“A big guy with a little fish,” he joked as he stood in the lineup shot.

Bill Siddall of Fountain Valley believes that he catches big fish when he doesn’t enter the jackpot. He told Roecker he proved it again with his 240-pound tuna. It bit a squid under the kite, baited on a pair of 10/0 7691 Mustad hooks on 100-pound Big Game line and 130-pound spectra. He fished with a Penn 50 SW reel and a Calstar 760H rod, a rig that went into the water so he could finish his tussle with a backup.

The man with the biggest tuna stood at the right end of the lineup shot. Paul Viale of Brookings, OR got a 249-pounder after a two-hour fight. His best-ever fish came on a kite rig with a squid on a 20/0 Mustad circle hook, tied to 100-pound fluorocarbon, 130-pound spectra on a Penn 50 VS reel and a Talus seven-foot rod.

Gail Wade-Adams, the woman who holds the San Diego fleet’s best-ever tuna record (341 pounds) for the fair sex, had a 200-pounder to make her trip. She got it with a squid under the kite, with the bait on a Mustad 7691 hook. She fished with 130-pound Izorline and 130-pound Izorline spectra on a Tiagra 50 reel and a Calstar 7455 XH rod.

“I got him to the boat in about 20 minutes,” she said. “But then he took off and got tailwrapped and went down and I was on him for an hour and 20 minutes.”

Intrepid came home to Pt. Loma Sportfishing November 10 following a 10-day trip with Larry Brown as chartermaster. Bill Cavanaugh was the skipper.

“Overall, we had good fishing on yellowfin tuna,” remarked Cavanaugh.

Steve Coy of Yorba Linda won first place for a 140-pound tuna. He bagged his prizewinner with a sardine on a 5/0 ringed Owner Super Mutu hook on 100-pound Seaguar Premier fluorocarbon and 100-pound Line One spectra on a Cal Sheets-treated Penn 30 reel. He used an elderly six-foot Sabre rod.

Phil Bell of Playa del Rey won second place for a 66-pound yellowfin tuna. Dean Kibbler of Northridge won third place for a 58-pound wahoo.

Shogun docked at Fisherman’s Landing November 10, after a seven-day trip sponsored by Western Sports Shop, with chartermaster Richard Birnbaum and 23 other anglers aboard. Aaron Barnhill skippered the trip, and earned praise from his passengers.

“We had nice weather,” Barnhill said to Roecker. “The 13 Spot was very good to us, and so was the 38. We found tuna, some wahoo and lots of dorado off Mag Bay. We got near-limits of tuna and dorado.”

Chartermaster Birnbaum said, “This was one of the best trips I’ve ever been on. The captain was superb, the deckhands couldn’t do enough for us, and the chef was first-class.”

Man and wife fishing team of Allen and Beth Lemberg of San Diego had good luck on the trip. Allen showed a tiny wahoo that was too injured to release. Beth said they were leaving on another trip the day after Thanksgiving, and hope to pose with a brace of cows when they return.

Jon Jagger of Glendale, AZ won first place for his 58.8-pound tuna. He said it took a sardine on a 4/0 hook and 50-pound fluorocarbon tied to 100-pound spectra. He didn’t know the brands, he said, or the model number of his Avet reel. He fished with an old Shakespeare rod of seven feet.

Allen Lemberg was second for a 49.5-pound tuna. Jeung Cha of Sunland won third place for a 46-pound yellowfin.

Mike Richards of Culver City stood in the lineup shot with his 37-pound dorado, along with Don Smith of Pasadena, whose first wahoo was a whopper of 69.5 pounds. It chomped a red and black Marauder jig on the troll.